Making a Van Slam Poster

Illustrator Eric Button was born in Whitehorse but is currently based in Vancouver. His artwork often features nature, Canadian culture and his cynical sense of humour. He’s recently taken on the project of designing and drawing the poster for YuKonstruct’s 2017 edition of Van Slam.

Van Slam is a showcase of the many unique DIY camping vehicle conversions in the Yukon. The “expo for vagabonds” has featured everything from converted ambulances to monster off-road campers. (See the blog posts about the 2015 & 2016 events) This year’s event will be happening in May and YuKonstruct is currently looking for volunteers and vehicle owners to show off their creations (check the forum for details).

Eric will be working on the poster during his live art broadcasts on pocketLIVE.tv. His broadcasts are an interactive art experiment. It is a collaborate effort between the artist and the internet.

Last week he started work on the Van Slam poster; first coming up with a general concept and overall composition, thumbnailing out ideas, and taking audience feedback.

You can tune in this week while he’s working on an initial rough drawing to work out the finer points of the design. YuKonstruct members can sign in to the chat to offer suggestions on the ultimate Yukon camper van and watch them be incorporated into the design. He’ll be broadcasting at 8pm on Wednesday and Thursday, and earlier during the afternoon on Friday.

The next step in the process will be a larger drawing done in pen and ink. Finally the image will be coloured in Photoshop.